Lightning lashes out.
It tears through the purple mist, colouring the entire world in a flash of light. My eyes burn from looking at it, and the electricity lances into Opal’s sword. They quiver for a moment, then a dozen runes light up with azure light. Some part of the attack seems to be stored, but it’s just a portion.
The rest lances up their arm. I curse, dashing to Norman, placing a hand over his chest. I wait for half a second, then slam my palm and a healing spell into his harm, forcibly compressing his heart with the slightly superhuman strength I have.
He gasps, his eyes rolling forward, then proceeds to swear up a storm. “Fucking piece of shit motherfucker!” he screams, drawing the eye of the majestic beast. Despite everything, my healing takes hold, ripping more mana out of me, and clinging to his skin in a cloud of mana. Then, I sprint to Opal.
A wall of earth rips up around me, and I’m a moment from breaking it, when a bolt of lightning does that for me. Bile’s hastily erected shield explodes, sending me sprawling forward, luckily towards Opal. A dozen mana-barriers of Norman appear around us, and I quickly pour more mana into healing my friend.
Opal, for their part, has a higher heart-score than Norman. They look at me, then flash a bright grin. Their sword reappears in their hands. “Thanks Snow! Now get out of here!” they yell, then blink aside.
More lightning lances through a dozen mana barriers. Blue streaks of arcing power stab towards me even as I’m already moving. They crash into my field of [Suppression], adjusted by what I know, made to counter the attack, and still it stabs through. I toss [Deconstruction] at it, too, and yet, with just one cast, the boss overwhelms all my guards.
Weakened arcane power jolts through me, sending my limbs to the ground in a spazzing tangle. My mouth clenches up, and for just a second, I can’t even look around. And yet, my mana listens.
Even when my own body betrays me, my mana listens.
My skin blisters and blackens with lightning. In a way that is eerily similar to the mage in Ezekiel’s party, almost as if the Earthmother was trying to prepare us for facing him, the electricity tears through me. Smoke hisses up from charred skin, and again, I take that energy apart, then cast a lingering, powerful healing spell.
Despite everything, I still have mana to spare. My vessel is powerful, now, still half filled, and so, when I can move again, I sprint, and throw another combo of spells at the beast. It’s my typical combo, this time.
[Selection] to create a tether, and amplify my own abilities. [Suppression] to weaken it, targeting its joints and weak spots with brutal efficiency, using both the amplification of [Selection], and the information provided to me by [Observation]. The skills sink into the boss’ hide, seeping through dense flesh and turning it brittle.
[Deconstruction 18 > 19]
[Nullmage 17 > 19]
Again, its attention turns to me, but this time, I’m ready. I launch myself to the side as fast as I can. A bolt of electricity courses through the air, but misses, its activation slowed for just a heartbeat by my own skills. Despite that, I still tear into it with [Deconstruction], stealing mana from the attack, and adding more fragments to [Memorize].
Slowly, bit by bit, I’m taking stock of the skill. Opal suddenly blinks above its head, and swings their sword down from their blink spot, appearing with little to no wind-up. Blue runes light up along their sword, and I feel mana pass from them as they activate the same skill twice, yet in two different ways.
First, an [Echo] of the boss’ attacks flares, a bolt of lightning that cracks into her weakened hide at the same time as Opal’s blade does. Then, a second [Echo], powered by the strike itself, tearing into flayed muscle. A spear of earth rises from below it, but the boss simply vanishes backwards.
Except, by now, Amelie’s puppets have marched in. Suddenly, the plants around the ticket start dancing on string. They close a circle around the boss, forming lines of thorns and spikes and plating.
Any single one of them would be trivial, but with a legion of them, even this great cat finds herself caged.
I breathe. Bile slinks forward, only to be shot back by lightning striking the earth before him. The boss hisses, as if trying to make us stay back, launching more and more arcs from all around her. And yet, each one that misses or sinks harmlessly into barriers lets me learn. One almost touches Opal, but they blink.
Then, forgotten by almost everyone, I notice Norman, right next to the beast. He draws a knife, sharp, probably given to him by Mike, and on instinct, I [Select] it, giving it a chunk of my mana to imbue it with [Deconstruction].
[Inscription 14 > 15]
[Job up! Imbuer 10 > 12]
My vessel pulses. The points take it up to 249. That… feels big. The first supremacy threshold was at 10, the second at 25. So perhaps, once the stat ticks over…
I breathe, focusing on the fight. Norman’s imbued dagger sinks into the flesh with prodigal ease. Muscles unravel slightly at its touch, as if shrinking away, torn into shrapnel of mana. Part of that powers the imbuement, and part of it flows into me. My epitaph is stronger than ever, feeding me a bigger chunk of the gains.
Another bolt of lightning instantly arcs out at Norman, lancing through his barriers like paper… but then, part of it vanishes. I throw mana at it, a huge amount, and watch the lightning diminish with [Deconstruction]. Then, it quivers and trembles as [Suppression] stalls it.
By the time it lances into the floor with a thundercrack, Norman is elsewhere. He’s sweating and panting, terribly afraid, and yet he fights.
More puppets pour into the clearing. Slower, stronger ones, that don’t hesitate to throw themselves at the boss. The tigress growls and snaps at them, tearing their bodies apart with claws and lightning, but it is not enough.
Their improvised and biological weapons start to hurt her. Amelie’s small army pours onto the giant beast, and stabs with anything they can find, tearing old wounds ajar and adding new ones. The tigress snarls, shaking herself, and the odies fall off her like rain, but the wounds remain.
Thorns lodged in her skin alongside javelins and crude spears. Threads wrapped around her, binding limbs together loosely. Her tail waves through the air in displeasure, perhaps fear.
Then, her eyes change colour. Azure becomes purple. The mist, which smelled of ozone and lavender, suddenly makes me choke on it. I cough, hacking it up as much as possible, but it’s already wormed its way into my body, an insidious agent only waiting to activate. And, for the first time in forever, I feel my mana tightening and seizing up, as if submitted to electric shock.
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